It is not easy for the sick to communicate their experiences, for it would require— as Virginia Woolf states in her essay “On Being Ill”— “the courage of a lion tamer” (Woolf 583). In illness, there is a “poverty of the language,” to express physical pain, for sickness has never been able to gather its own “vocabulary” (Woolf 583). Finding words to express “this monster” that is illness is frightening; it creates confusion and fear (Woolf 583). As Woolf describes it: “The merest schoolgirl, when she falls in love, has Shakespeare, Donne, Keats to speak her mind for her; but let a sufferer try to describe a pain in his head to a doctor, and language at once runs dry” (Woolf 583). It is a daunting task to attempt to describe the experience of
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It is a film about a Columbia University linguistics professor as she succumbs to the ravages of early onset Alzheimer’s at the young age of 50. The film does nothing but speak the truth- it depicts Alice as she recedes deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of her own mind. A lot of the time, the film just observes Alice. We watch her on her routine run, as she gets lost. We watch her forget where the bathroom is in her own home and pee her pants. We also watch her forget the simplest things like the word highlighter. While we may view her forgetfulness as a deteriorating effect of her illness, Alice views it as “learning the art of losing.” In her speech at the Alzheimer’s Association Conference, she says: “I find myself learning the art of losing every day. Losing my bearings, losing objects, losing sleep, but mostly losing memories...” (1:07:31). Even though she is losing things, she proclaims: “I am not suffering, I am struggling. Struggling to be a part of things” (1:09:54). Even with small things like continuing to play Words With Friends—her earlier expertise with a word for 60 points diminishes to simpler words for 6 points— Alice tries to be present in life. From going on walks, to witnessing her daughter’s childbirth, she is still able to enjoy the simple pleasures for a short …show more content…
Producing the movie was relatable and close to the heart: Glatzer said, “there are new challenges every day as the disease moves forward…it changes the way people perceive you,” which is ultimately what Alice experienced (Zeitchik). He found that there were distinct parallels “in terms of the sense of barriers between you and the world,” and it started with small things of how people would treat you, “like whether they’d invite you to a dinner party” (Zeitchik). We see this as Alice’s reality begins to melt away and she describes it as “[my] strange behavior and fumbled sentences change others’ perception of [me], and [my] perception of [myself]...” (1:08:49). Her family cannot come to terms with her disease- they do not understand. Her husband reacts with rash denial when she first confesses her diagnosis: “that is completely insane…it’s complete bullshit” (0:23:47). Alice tries to stay present, but to no avail- her family begins to treat her differently. Their reaction is to deny this cruel, degenerative disease, instead of embracing and doing everything they can to understand it and help. This leads to Alice’s family treating her differently, starting with trivial things like talking about Alice when she is in the room next door, thinking she can’t hear them, and extends to
It is a film about a Columbia University linguistics professor as she succumbs to the ravages of early onset Alzheimer’s at the young age of 50. The film does nothing but speak the truth- it depicts Alice as she recedes deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of her own mind. A lot of the time, the film just observes Alice. We watch her on her routine run, as she gets lost. We watch her forget where the bathroom is in her own home and pee her pants. We also watch her forget the simplest things like the word highlighter. While we may view her forgetfulness as a deteriorating effect of her illness, Alice views it as “learning the art of losing.” In her speech at the Alzheimer’s Association Conference, she says: “I find myself learning the art of losing every day. Losing my bearings, losing objects, losing sleep, but mostly losing memories...” (1:07:31). Even though she is losing things, she proclaims: “I am not suffering, I am struggling. Struggling to be a part of things” (1:09:54). Even with small things like continuing to play Words With Friends—her earlier expertise with a word for 60 points diminishes to simpler words for 6 points— Alice tries to be present in life. From going on walks, to witnessing her daughter’s childbirth, she is still able to enjoy the simple pleasures for a short …show more content…
Producing the movie was relatable and close to the heart: Glatzer said, “there are new challenges every day as the disease moves forward…it changes the way people perceive you,” which is ultimately what Alice experienced (Zeitchik). He found that there were distinct parallels “in terms of the sense of barriers between you and the world,” and it started with small things of how people would treat you, “like whether they’d invite you to a dinner party” (Zeitchik). We see this as Alice’s reality begins to melt away and she describes it as “[my] strange behavior and fumbled sentences change others’ perception of [me], and [my] perception of [myself]...” (1:08:49). Her family cannot come to terms with her disease- they do not understand. Her husband reacts with rash denial when she first confesses her diagnosis: “that is completely insane…it’s complete bullshit” (0:23:47). Alice tries to stay present, but to no avail- her family begins to treat her differently. Their reaction is to deny this cruel, degenerative disease, instead of embracing and doing everything they can to understand it and help. This leads to Alice’s family treating her differently, starting with trivial things like talking about Alice when she is in the room next door, thinking she can’t hear them, and extends to